Fresh iPhone Apps for Aug. 22: iCarMode, iBlast Moki 2, Spacelings

The weekend might be over, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start making plans for next Friday. Download iCarMode and safely use your phone to arrange things to do with your friends while keeping your eyes on the road. iBlast Moki 2 is a puzzle game that’s all about using bombs to move […]

The weekend might be over, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start making plans for next Friday. Download iCarMode and safely use your phone to arrange things to do with your friends while keeping your eyes on the road. iBlast Moki 2 is a puzzle game that’s all about using bombs to move characters around, and Spacelings requires you to figure out how to use tractor beams to save wayward spacemen.

iCarMode (iPhone, iPad) $1.99

The idea behind iCarMode is to make it easy to use your iPhone while driving without having to give it a lot of attention. It takes four major functions that are most useful when you’re driving – GPS, Music, Contacts and Phone – and puts those functions front and center on a big, four-button interface. That way, you can go right to what you want without having to search through all your apps for the right ones.

When you hit one of the four main buttons in iCarMode, you get a larger, easier-to-use interface than you might normally with the native iPhone apps for each function. A bigger dial pad in the phone, for example, makes it easier to use the phone without looking at it much.

iBlast Moki 2 (iPhone, iPad) $0.99

Physics puzzler iBlast Moki 2 is all about bombs. In each of its levels, you’ll have bombs of various types and you have to use them to blast legless characters around the level to get them to a goal. The closer you set a bomb to a moki, the further they fly, and you’ll also have access to other bombs that do things like spread glue on an area, create a slick spot that speeds up a moki’s movement, or bounces a moki in the air.

You get 90 levels across six worlds in iBlast Moki 2. It also has a level editor, which allows you to upload your levels to the Internet for others to play or download new ones to add to your collection. Your high scores are saved to the game’s leaderboards care of Game Center.

Spacelings (iPhone, iPad) $0.99

A puzzle game of a different sort, Spacelings is about a group of aliens lost in the weightless vastness of space. Actually, most are lost right around a bunch of space debris, and it’s your job to retrieve them. To do so, you fire off your ship’s tractor beam, but in order to reach the Spacelings, you have to redirect its path with reflectors to get it around corners. It sounds simple, but with a limited number of reflectors and with the clock ticking, you’ll have to flex your brain muscles to save them all.

You’ll earn medals as you progress through each of the game’s levels. Things really ramp-up as you use various kinds of machines to change your beam and have to start contending with enemies as well. Spacelings packs 20 Game Center achievements to earn, and also includes online leaderboards.

Phil Hornshaw is a freelance writer, editor and author living in Los Angeles, dividing his time between playing video games, playing video games on his cell phone, and writing about playing video games. He’s also the co-author of So You Created a Wormhole: The Time Traveler’s Guide to Time Travel, which attempts to mix time travel pop culture with some semblance of science, as well as tips on the appropriate means of riding dinosaurs. Check out his Google+ profile.